iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

How is that possible?! One of my favourite places ever!

Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

I'm about to turn 50 & I'm not feeling 100% jolly about it. Mostly because I am really keen to find a home for my fourth novel. I'm out on sub to a few agents but who knows? In the meantime, does anyone know of any small presses that are open to submissions? It's a dark love story set in the 50s!

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

A politics that claims to speak for "the people" against its "enemies" is always dangerous. "The people" are a glorious array of different ideas & interests, with democracy a dialogue between them. Populism is founded on a lie,so its fruits are always authoritarianism, simplism & conspiratorialism

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

You have to wonder about all these spam emails being sent to writers, offering ‘book promotion services’. Like, you really think trying to tap *writers* for money will provide a good source of income?

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Sam Missingham @samatlounge.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Reminder, now the world has been reduced to ‘content’ being fed into make-believe machines run by billionaires, books are gold dust when compared to all other ‘content’. If only book publishing positioned themselves as that and believed in themselves.

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Sam Missingham @samatlounge.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

If you care about the future of books and publishing, I highly recommend you get behind this initiative with your whole hearts - (for what it's worth I think the whole of publishing should do this) www.thebookseller.com/news/uk-star...

thebookseller.com

Startup launches ‘industry-first’ certification for human-made books

UK start-up Books By People has launched a new certification – the Organic Literature Certification – with a group of independent publishing houses to “counter AI-generated books”.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

So, I've been off Bluesky for a while, no particular reason, and now I've been without a working phone for *counts on fingers* three days and I feel cut off from the world! On the plus side, I read the (nearly) entire of Alan Hollinghurst's Our Evenings on the train back from our holiday!

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Really interesting thread on the ramifications of the #SaltPath debacle 👇

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Is anyone listening to the R4 Postwar series? It's brilliant but also so relevant to today: the beginning of the Welfare State, the United Nations, the Cold War... @bbcsounds.bsky.social

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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

A man with a scorpion bite. A woman with cholera. A diabetic who needed insulin. A 3-year-old boy. They all died when the U.S. stopped sending medicine to Sudan. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

a man with a scorpion bite. A woman with cholera. A diabetic who needed insulin. And Omran, the dimpled 3-year-old.

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

REALLY ITS TOO MUCH EFFORT TO LIFT THE BLOODY PEN

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 29/06/2025

Teachers don't need more tech. They need smaller classes and more (paid) time for prep and instruction. But alas, the tech option means more profit for billionaires, while the latter would cost billionaires more in taxes. And so, in our current kleptocracy, tech is what teachers are going to get...

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

"Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites..." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

haaretz.com

IDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid

***

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

These are trying times.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

We can't afford it. So the solution is, really, to pay more taxes. But no one wants to admit this.

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

We were looking for Florence but couldn't find it, but we have found a beautiful town called Firenze.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Why are new writing competitions cropping up right now when there are so many submissions from proven writers? I guess it's a quickish way to find new debuts. Debuts are, by definition, new, so can be presented as shiny rather than tarnished. I suspect that it's also a good way to make some money.

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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 24/06/2025

I’m so tired of the wrong answers. So, so tired. It’s the Yeats poem, except the best don’t lack conviction at all, they just get ignored. On climate, on rights, on peace, on AI.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Midsummer round here: tits in the birdbox, first ever cherries and a massive moth...which, it turns out, is called a Cockchafer 😳. AKA a MayBug. It's all kicking off round here.

Tit in a lovely bird box on my pear tree

Two glistening cherries on a cherry tree

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William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 20/06/2025

Why, this is very midsummer madness.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Of course I am making a chocolate birthday cake on the hottest day of the year and the oven is on. 🥵

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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

One of the biggest problems with the world is that fools are always so sure and certain about everything and intelligent people are so full of doubts and uncertainties.

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Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

It’s weird being an author and living under the constant pressure of not being good enough and feeling like you suck but also looking around and knowing none of these AI “writers” can do what you do.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Cahokia Jazz, my third Francis Spufford. He's incredible!

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Me: take hours to read a book You: have your super hot ChatGPT girlfriend download a million books, read them, then summarize them all to you in a barrage of lies that you can't even tell are lies because you don't read books; also you have the critical thinking skills of a shovel-struck donkey

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

I am so happy that Andrew Miller has won this prize. He is a genius writer. And I love The Land in Winter, it's a beautiful book.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

'In a wide-ranging report analysing the benefits and threats posed by AI to the UK’s film, TV, video game and visual special effects industries, the BFI also raises fears that automation will eliminate the entry-level jobs that bring in the next generation of workers.' 1/2

theguardian.com

AI plundering scripts poses ‘direct threat’ to UK screen sector, says BFI

Film institute’s report raises fears AI will eliminate junior roles in film, TV, video game and special effects industries

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

I am so up for this. Two of my great loves: trains and words. On a side note, if anyone wants to commission me to write a piece/book on adult interrailing, I'm keen😃 Off interrailing for the second time in my life in September. Ridiculously excited. 🚄✍️

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Laura Kate Dale - LauraKBuzz @laurakbuzz.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

So, I think it's time I begin, in detailed specifics, talking about the mess that is Unbound / Boundless as a book publisher, in essence stealing most of a years royalties from me and many other authors, as a result of poor financial decisions, and legal BS. Please read and share this thread.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵 First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

A set of eight rectangular cookies arranged on a square white plate against a dark wooden background. Each cookie is inspired by a wallpaper design by Morris & Co. The patterns represented feature different floral and leaf shapes in shades of baby blue, soft pink, leafy green, mustard yellow, cream, and dark grey.

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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

From the CWS Archives. 23rd August 2024.

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Kit de Waal @kitdewaal.com · 27/05/2025

Writers from around the world can submit scripts for BBC Audio Drama with cash prize, and attendance at an award ceremony in the UK to participate in the recording of their dramas for a world premiere. Flight and accommodation expenses are covered by the BBC. Details in link. Please share :)

bbc.co.uk

BBC World Service - BBC World Drama - The International Audio Drama Competition 2026: How to enter

How to submit your play for the International Audio Drama Competition 2026

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James McConnachie @jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Funny, every writer in the UK knows how it'd work. You'd ask @alcs.co.uk to organise it. Seeing as how it's EXACTLY WHAT THEY ALREADY DO.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Guys, I've just started the latest hot novel, Fingersmith! Have you heard of it? Ha. Sooooo stupidly late to this one.

Old copy of the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, nestled in a flowering honeysuckle.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Turns out it's Phantom Thread not *The* Phantom Thread, like *The* Phantom Menace. Still, maybe it was the long shadow of that crushing disappointment which put me off? 🤔

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Watched a succession of brilliant films recently: The Phantom Thread (why hadn't I watched it before? Maybe it's the awful title!); The Zone of Interest; Triangle of Sadness (sounds like a Dogme film, is v funny); and a Paul Mescal double-header, All of Us Strangers and last night, Aftersun.

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Tech bros: ‘We want to take all the data in the entire world to create an unreliable product for a failing business model propped up by billions in venture capital.’ Artists: ‘We want our legal rights over our work to be recognised.’ Tech bros: ‘Jesus, why can’t you people ever be reasonable.’

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SHADOW OF MADNESS out now! @dvbishop.com · 24/05/2025

Repeat after me, Nick: Intellectual property is still property. Theft is still theft. A business that can't succeed without theft? That's called a criminal enterprise. Also: get ****ed, you techbro quisling.

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Nikki Smith @nikkismithauthor.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

It’s publication day for #TheyHadItComing 😃😎😃 I hope you enjoy my revenge thriller set in Bali - thank you to everyone who read an early copy & said nice things about it! It’s in @WHSmith @sainsburys @Waterstones Indi bookshops or follow this link! www.penguin.co.uk/books/463787...

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Matt Anniss @sellbydave.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Today, I launch the next stage of my PhD research into rave culture in #EastAnglia (that’s #Cambridgeshire, #Norfolk and #Suffolk) between 1989 and 2019. I’m looking for former and current ravers who partied in the region to fill in a quick online survey about their experiences.

Text reads: EAST ANGLIAN RAVERS REQUIRED! If you have been to or organised a free party or rave in East Anglia since 1989, we want to hear from you! As part of an ongoing PhD project, music historian Matt Anniss is creating a new history of rave culture in East Anglia, showcasing the stories, memories and experiences of those who took part. To have your say and share your experiences, head to www.tinyurl.com/rave-research

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Eric Smith @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Another reason so many authors on your feed are furious about that A.I. generated summer reading article, is that in a media landscape where coverage for books is shrinking absolutely everywhere… this is what we get.

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Zoë Somerville @zoesomerville.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Norm :( God I loved Cheers in the 80s (& 90s?). Going to the Cheers bar in Boston was something of a letdown though

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